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B.C. government appeals ruling in child-abuse case

The provincial government is appealing a scathing B.C. Supreme Court ruling in a Lower Mainland child abuse case, hoping to get “clarity.”

Last month, Justice Paul Walker concluded the Ministry of Children and Family Development was liable after it ignored a court order and let a woman’s abusive husband have unsupervised access to her four children, despite her warnings, during which time he sexually abused the youngest.

The judge lambasted the ministry’s social workers for portraying the mom as mentally ill, while supporting the father.

The mother, only known as JP, has issued a statement through her lawyer, saying, “I think it’s completely rude and inhumane to go on against children that have been hurt so horribly.

“What they have done for six years and now continue to do is cruel and sadistic. They are like the people running the MCFD. We are suffering because of them – terribly.

“I can’t do this all by myself. At a minimum it would be nice to see all my fellow taxpayers step in and say they are not funding this.”

Minister in charge Stephanie Cadieux recently appointed a former deputy to review how social workers handled the case, to be handled by human resources.

In a statement, she says the appeal is not about the family involved, but “about every family that the ministry may interact with in the future.”

She says lawyers have advised her the trial judge may have erred, and that an appeal is warranted.